Esther Rantzen

Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting That's Life! and her child protection activities as founder of the charity ChildLine. Rantzen also advocates the work of the Burma Campaign UK.

Biography

Esther Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England to Rose and Henry Barnato (1902-1992) Rantzen, a Jewish family. She was educated at the North London Collegiate School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read English and performed with the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) and became Secretary of The Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) performing in Oxford and Edinburgh. After training in secretarial skills, she was recruited by BBC Radio as a trainee studio manager. She began her television career as a clerk in the programme planning department, then obtained her first production job working as a researcher on the BBC One late-night satire programme, BBC3 (1965-66), created by Ned Sherrin. Having worked as a researcher on a number of Current Affairs programmes, she moved to the award-winning BBC Two documentary series Man Alive in the mid-1960s.

In 1968, Esther Rantzen became one of the onscreen researcher/presenters of Bernard Braden’s consumer show Braden's Week. (Braden appeared in margarine advertisements; this was - strictly speaking - a breach of BBC contracts, but he was allowed to continue presenting the series.) In 1972, Braden decided to return to his native Canada to present a similar TV show there. In his absence, in 1973 the BBC replaced Braden’s Week with That's Life!. The format was very similar, including a Fletcher (Cyril not Ronald) to read out amusing misprints.

That's Life! ran on BBC One for 21 years, (1973 to 1994), becoming the most popular show on British television, reaching audiences of more than 18 million. During that time it moved the traditional role of the consumer programme from simply exposing faulty washing machines and dodgy salesmen, to investigating life and death issues such as a campaign for more organ donors, featuring Ben Hardwick, the two-year-old dying of liver disease, whose only hope was a transplant, and the investigation of a boarding school owned by a paedophile, who employed two paedophile teachers. Alongside such serious reports, the show also introduced viewers to many extraordinarily talented pets, including Prince, the talking dog, who said "sausages", a table-tennis playing cat and a counting horse. Among the talented viewers the series discovered were Ian Harold Brown, the man who could play the Hawaii Five-O theme tune on his bootlaces, Annie Mizen, the show-stopping granny Esther met in the North End Road Street Market, a man who tap-danced on his false teeth, and another who played Amazing Grace on his fork-lift truck. The programme popularised the term "Jobsworth" in England by creating "The Jobsworth Award" for any official who insisted on applying a daft rule beyond the bounds of reason, such as clamping the car of a woman in labour in a hospital car park (because they would claim that "it's more than my job's worth not to do it"). New laws were introduced, such as the law enforcing the use of seat belts for children sitting in the backs of cars, as a result of their campaigns. And playground surfaces were dug up around the country, the dangerous tarmac and concrete being replaced with safe surfaces.

Rantzen also devised the documentary series The Big Time in 1976, which launched the singing career of Sheena Easton. She also briefly hosted a junior version of That's Life in the 1980s. Rantzen was one of the founders of TV-am, the operator selected by ITV to launch its breakfast television service. But before the station went on air in 1983, Rantzen dropped out, remaining with the BBC. She later briefly took a consumer spot on the BBC's own Breakfast Time. Having made programmes about stillbirth, (The Lost Babies), and mental health, (Trouble in Mind), in 1985 Rantzen presented a BBC One programme on drug abuse, Drugwatch. In 1986 she produced and presented Childwatch, which alerted the British public to the prevalence of child abuse, and successfully campaigned for a number of legal reforms in this area.

Although the programme was influential in many different ways, not least in the introduction of the videolink for child witnesses, it is notable for the launch of the first national helpline for children in danger or distress, ChildLine. Rantzen had suggested the Childwatch programme to BBC1 Controller Michael Grade after the death of a toddler who had starved to death, locked in a bedroom. The aim of the programme was to find better ways of detecting children at risk of abuse, and to that end, viewers of That's Life! who had themselves experienced cruelty as children were asked to take part in a survey detailing the circumstances of their abuse.

Esther Rantzen made false allegations of child abuse against nursery nurses Dawn Reed and Christopher Lillie, who worked at the Shieldfield Nursery in Newcastle. She put out a press release stating on behalf of ChildLine: “This is one of the worst cases of mass child abuse ever seen in this country.” (In fact Reed and Lillie had been found not guilty of child abuse at a criminal trial. A 4-year-old girl, the main witness in the trial, had clearly professed Reed’s innocence in two video interviews! An American professor who had declared that the videos clearly showed guilt, had to admit that he had not in fact seen the videos!) Reed and Lillie subsequently won a libel case against Newcastle city council, the four members of the review team and the local Evening Chronicle.

Rantzen suggested that after that edition of That's Life!, the BBC should open a helpline for children, in case any young viewers suffering current abuse wished to ring in to ask for help. The helpline was open for 48 hours, during which it was swamped with calls, mainly from children suffering sexual abuse they had never been able to disclose to anyone else. This gave Rantzen the idea for a specific helpline for children in distress or danger, to be open throughout the year, 24/7, the first line of its kind in the world. The Childwatch team consulted child care professionals, who agreed that children would use such a helpline, but that it would be impossible to create.

Nevertheless the team obtained funding from the Department of Health and the Variety Club of Great Britain, both of whom donated £25,000, and Ian Skipper OBE, (a noted philanthropist who had already helped Rantzen set up a special fund in memory of Ben Hardwick), agreed to underwrite the cost of running the helpline for the first year. Rantzen and the team went to BT to ask for premises for the charity and for a simple freephone number, both of which were provided. The Childwatch programme, based on the results of the survey, launched ChildLine with a specially written jingle (by B. A. Robertson) which featured the free phone number 0800 1111. On that first night in October 1986, fifty thousand attempted calls were made to the helpline. ChildLine now has twelve bases around the UK, including two in Northern Ireland, two in Scotland, and two in Wales. ChildLine has now merged with the NSPCC, which has enabled it to expand to try to meet the demand. The helpline has now been copied in 150 countries around the world.

In 1988, Rantzen created a TV series called Hearts of Gold celebrating people who have performed unsung acts of outstanding kindness or courage. The uplifting theme tune was composed by Lynsey De Paul. From 1996 to 2002, she presented a talk show, Esther, on BBC Two, which received two BAFTA nominations. She also presented the ITV campaigning programme, That's Esther, with co-presenters Lara Masters and Heather Mills. In 2004, Esther Rantzen participated in the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing (later exported to the U.S. as Dancing With The Stars).

In 2006, Rantzen took part in the BBC Two programmes Would Like to Meet and Excuse my French, and was selected to present a new consumer affairs show with former Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood, under the title Old Dogs New Tricks. She made a documentary for ITV called Winton's Children about Sir Nicholas Winton who, as was first revealed on That's Life!, had rescued a generation of Czech children from the holocaust and was later nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. After the death of Rantzen's husband, film-maker Desmond Wilcox, she made a landmark programme, How to Have a Good Death for BBC Two, on palliative care. Recently she has campaigned on behalf of hospice care and better care for the elderly and terminally ill.

In addition to her television career she continues her work with ChildLine as a volunteer counsellor on the helpline, and fund-raiser and spokesperson for children's rights. For twenty years she chaired the Board of Trustees, and since ChildLine merged with the NSPCC, she has served as a Trustee of the NSPCC, and President of ChildLine. In a 2008 Daily Mail article that was largely critical of hysteria surrounding child protection in contemporary Britain, Rantzen partially blamed herself for said social changes: "I was part of the revolution in child protection which created these insidious jobsworths." Rantzen appeared on the 2008 series of ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. Rantzen was the 5th celebrity to leave the camp.

On 26 May 2009, Rantzen announced on Stephen Rhodes BBC Three Counties Breakfast Show, her intention to stand as an independent candidate for Parliament if incumbent Labour MP Margaret Moran, stands for Luton South again. Rantzen's decision was made against the backdrop of Moran's expense claims for dry rot in her second home in Southampton. However, when two days later Moran announced she would not stand at the next General Election, Rantzen said she was still considering whether to stand herself. Her running was confirmed on 28th July.

Personal Life

In 1968 Esther Rantzen began an affair with Desmond Wilcox, who was her Department Head (boss, essentially) and was married to Esther's friend Patsy. After several years they decided to live together, and informed BBC management of their relationship. Management's solution was to move the entire production team of That's Life! out of Wilcox's department. What they didn't consider was that the new arrangement meant that Esther and Patsy were now working in the same department, causing both women concern. Patsy Wilcox always refused to divorce her husband, but agreed when Rantzen became pregnant. After Rantzen and Wilcox married in December 1977, BBC management moved her back into his department, General Features.

However, by that time That's Life! was achieving huge audiences, reaching the number one position in the top ten programmes, even gaining more viewers than Coronation Street. This caused jealousy among colleagues in General Features, who ascribed the success of the programme to Wilcox's relationship with Rantzen. They complained to management, quoting the BBC's regulation that husbands and wives should not work in the same department. As a result Desmond Wilcox resigned, and set up his own independent production company, making documentaries such as The Visit, which included a series of programmes about The Boy David. For these, as well as previous films, in 2001 he received the Grierson Life-Time Achievement Award. Wilcox and Rantzen had three children — Emily, born in 1978, Rebecca born in 1980 and Joshua in 1981. Currently Emily works for a children's charity, Rebecca is a television journalist and Joshua is a medical student.

Having suffered coronary heart disease for 15 years, Desmond died in 2000, aged 69. He and Rantzen had enjoyed a very happy marriage, their first wedding having taken place in a register office in Kingston in 1977. After his conversion to Judaism, their second wedding was celebrated in 1999 in the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, covered by Hello!. Wilcox's last words to Rantzen before he died in 2000 were "I adore you", She created a memorial service for him (as he had stipulated in St Martin's in the Fields), at which the eulogy was given by David Jackson, "The Boy David". In 2007, Rantzen opened the Desmond Wilcox Media Centre in Rainhill High School, Merseyside. Each year Rantzen presents the Desmond Wilcox Award to volunteers working for the Hearing Dogs for the Deaf charity, he having raised a large amount of funds for them. She remains single.

Rantzen gained unwelcome publicity during the run of That's Life! when she was arrested for obstruction while handing out bat stew to the public in London's North End Road; was convicted, and fined £15.

In 2007, the Advertising Standards Authority did not uphold a complaint against a TV ad that Rantzen presented for Accident Advice Helpline. Three viewers complained that the style of the ad was too similar to genuine audience-participation programmes, and that it implied impartial advice when it was not in fact doing so. However, the advert went on to be seen as one of "TV's Worst Ads" as seen by the web site: TV's worst Ads.

In 2009, Esther Rantzen responded to a spate of attacks on Romanians in Belfast by commenting that the “people of Northern Ireland are addicted to hatred”. The controversial statements were made on the BBC's Question Time.

Honours

In 1991, Esther Rantzen was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire: (OBE) for services to broadcasting, and has received honorary doctorates from the Southampton Institute, the London South Bank University and Portsmouth University, for the creation of ChildLine and her career as a broadcaster. She was raised to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 2006 for services to children.

She has received a number of professional awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television, the Royal Television Society's Special Judges' Award for Journalism, their Fellowship, and Membership of their Hall of Fame. She also was the first woman to receive a Dimbleby Award from BAFTA for factual presentation. She received the Snowdon Award for services to disabled people.

She is President of ChildLine and the Association for Young People with M.E. (AYME), and is a Patron of various hospices and charities for disabled people, including the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, the Hillingdon Manor School for autistic children, the North London Hospice, and the Campaign for Courtesy, and she has served on a number of government committees, including the National Consumer Council, the Health Education Authority and the Campaign for Quality Television.

In June 2007, Esther Rantzen visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to promote the use of the Liverpool Care of the Dying Pathway for terminally ill patients.

Family origins

Rantzen was the subject of an episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on 3 September 2008. Her paternal line was traced back, as far as the 1760s, to an established Jewish neighbourhood in Warsaw. Tracing Rantzen's forebears was greatly helped by the rarity of the surname "Rantzen" (even in Warsaw) and the survival of records in Warsaw. In the late 1850s, her great-great-grandfather migrated to England and settled, as a cap-maker, in Spitalfields, a slum district of London's East End. Rantzen's great-grandfather moved to a more comfortable neighbourhood with the help of his brother-in-law, Barney Barnato (born Barnett Isaacs), who had become extremely wealthy as a diamond merchant in South Africa. Esther's father's middle name was Barnato.

Barnato died relatively young in unusual circumstances being lost at sea, but the generous inheritance he left allowed the Rantzen family to establish itself in more middle-class professions and neighbourhoods. In the BBC programme Esther professed her gratitude for the comfortable upbringing she had enjoyed in Hampstead but also, having visited the site of the family home in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw later destroyed by the Nazis after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, she showed a certain amount of "survivor guilt".

On her wealthy maternal side Rantzens's great-grandfather, Montague Richard Leverson, at the age of 18 accidentally fatally shot the parlour maid Priscilla Fitzpatrick at the family home in fashionable Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London. Later, in his 30s and working as a solicitor, Montague disappeared with a very large sum of one of his client's money, fleeing to Paris and abandoning Rantzen’s great-grandmother. He then moved to the USA. He later returned to England, in his 80s, took back his nationality and married again at the age of 82. Montague Leverson was the maternal grandfather of British composer Gerald Finzi.

References

• Rantzen, Esther (2001). Esther, The Autobiography. London: BBC Worldwide. ISBN 0-563-53741-8.
• Who's Who

BBC Northern Ireland News - Rantzen - NI 'addicted to hatred'

Belfast Telegraph online - Ulster folk addicted to violence, rants Esther

External links

• Esther speaks to the Totally Chappers webcast about her time on That's Life
• Esther presents the Ad for Accident Advice Helpline
• The Advertising Standards Association adjudication

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